Labor's Edge: Views from the California Labor Movement

Support Federal Workers!

It’s been almost four weeks since 800,000+ federal employees have been shut out from their jobs without pay because of President Trump’s partial government shutdown.. President Trump has stated he is prepared to let the government shutdown go on for “months or even years” if his border wall is not fully funded. In the meantime, 420,000 federal employees are working without pay, including TSA officers, while 380,000 have been furloughed.

Unfortunately, these workers cannot afford to wait “months or even year” until the government shutdown ends. Federal employees are real people with families to feed and bills to pay and we cannot stand by as the President and Republican Senate uses these workers as political pawns.

On Wednesday, federal employees and TSA officers at Sacramento International Airport protested the #TrumpShutdown that’s leaving 800,000 workers without paychecks. Among those rallying in support of workers represented by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) were Executive Secretary-Treasurer Art Pulaski, Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher, Assemblymember Ash Kalra and Sacramento Central Labor Council Executive Director Fabrizio Sasso.

Pulaski:It’s time to end the shutdown! Federal workers took an oath to protect America and they’re keeping that promise every day. Now it’s time for Republicans and Trump to keep up theirs.

Gonzalez-Fletcher:This isn’t a fight about border security, this is a fight about Donald Trump…It’s time to say enough is enough. We’re calling on Republican colleagues in the Assembly and Congress to call on Donald Trump to end this.

Kalra:We demand that the federal government ends this shutdown and that Donald Trump stops playing games with workers lives.

James Mudrock from AFGE local 1230:“We want those paychecks. We earned those paychecks. We deserve those paychecks.”

Workers can’t afford to wait any longer to get paid. Rent is due. The cupboard is nearly bare. Bills are piling up. It’s time to #StoptheShutdown. Workers deserve nothing less. Read more about the rally in Sacramento here.